Finance professor's journey to the states

By Hillary Haenes
Features Editor

A vast number of people who are born in other countries aspire to visit America one day, but Professor Mahdy Elhusseiny turned his dream of living in the United States a reality.
"I had a dream when I was young. My dream was to go to the states. When I entered the school of business at the university level, my dream was to go to the states and work on my Ph.D.," smiled Elhusseiny.
Born in Egypt, Elhusseiny graduated in 1990 with his Bachelor's Degree from Cairo University in Egypt. Here, he was hired as a teaching assistant and later moved to teach at the Higher Technological Institute business school for seven years. The Higher Technological Institute had a connection with the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) and the institute nominated him to work with professors from UDC. When the professors left to go back to America, they sent Elhusseiny an application to come to the U.S.
He arrived in Norfolk, VA in 1999 and three years later, he received his Master's Degree in economics from Old Dominion University (ODU). This was the most difficult few of years of his life because he did not have a scholarship or citizenship from the School of Business. Elhusseiny chose to come to America and do whatever it took to make it in this country. He started working long weekends selling Greek foods all over the country, even traveling as far as Denver, Colorado in a three-day span.
"I used to drive freight trucks back and forth on the weekends and then come back to Northern Virginia. I worked very hard because I had to have at least $5,000 of tuition every semester and [money for] an apartment. At that time, I had my wife and newborn 6-month-old baby boy. I got married one and a half years before I moved here. We had to have like $8,000 for the semester and I had nothing. When I look back at those three years, I don't know how I made it," declared Elhusseiny.
Imagine a man, new to America, leaving his wife and newborn every Friday to take a catering company's truck to drive halfway across the country in three days. Then, when he came home for the weekdays, Elhusseiny had to study very hard to have citizenship in the program.
"I remember one semester I didn't have enough money, so I had to delay [my education] for one semester ... I had no other goal. I had no other choice. I didn't come to the states to sell food ... This is what I keep telling my students, this is the only country that dreams comes true ... Don't worry about the current economic situation, this country has its own system, if you work hard you are going to make it," explained Elhusseiny.
Remaining goal-oriented, Elhusseiny came back from his three-month stay in Florida selling foods at festivals and made enough money to continue his education. He completed his Master's Degree and received citizenship for his Ph.D., which he quickly finished in three and a half years.
In August 2005, he completed his doctorate in finance from ODU. While he was working on his Ph.D., he was allowed to teach management and finance classes as a junket professor.
Elhusseiny accepted his first job as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of South Dakota within a week of defending his dissertation. While he taught there for two years, it was here when Elhusseiny first got involved with and supervised the Financial Management Association (FMA).
"The FMA is basically a club for financial students. What we try to do is to build a bridge between our students and the community," said Elhusseiny.
Under his supervision, FMA had lots of activities and an outstanding chapter. In fact, their chapter of FMA contacted Warren Buffet and the students were on Buffet's buses to Omaha, Nebraska to personally meet with the richest man in the world - who is worth around $62 million. Elhusseiny's students asked Buffet questions about his career in the stock market, then after two hours of talking to Buffet, the students were sent downtown to a luncheon and dined with Buffet.
"This guy is very down-to-earth. This is the richest guy. He made all of his wealth by just playing in the stock market," said Elhusseiny.
After teaching for two years in the "freezing area" of South Dakota, Elhusseiny moved his family to a warmer climate, as well as a more diverse culture. Bakersfield became the family's new home in 2007 when he began his current position as Assistant Professor of Finance at CSUB. When Elhusseiny came here, the club had been around for years, but the FMA club was not activated, so he immediately applied and the club was re-chartered on January 10, 2008.
During the club's first quarter, it was activated nationally and internationally, the second quarter was spent building a website and holding an event, while during the third quarter, FMA students took a trip north to San Francisco to visit the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
"I was driving them very crazy! It's the only way. This year we have a big goal. The big goal is to have our outstanding chapter. They show in the FMA newsletter every year, the outstanding chapter out of 3,000 schools in the nation," informed Elhusseiny.
This quarter, FMA put on an event called, Obamanomics: Social v. Free Market Capitalism. This event was free and open to the community. Local politicians, professors, FMA members and the community discussed current topics. Another exciting trip is planned for the Spring Quarter - in May the FMA students are flying to New York to visit the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Although Elhusseiny has only been at CSUB for a couple of years, he has made a huge impact on our campus. Not only has his involvement with FMA proved successful, but he published four papers last year, which exceeds the expectation in service to the school.
"Professor Elhusseiny has become more than just a professor to me; he has become a friend and a mentor. He is not only a great educator and expert of finance, but he is someone that has motivated to get students interested in the field of finance. His office doors are always open to students, and I believe I speak for the rest of the board of FMA when I say that without him, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish the many things we have achieved as an organization," said CSUB's FMA President, Neeraj Rama.